January 29, 2025 • 11 mins
It's sort of like the day the steel mill closed in Allentown. HSN, once one of the Tampa Bay area's largest employers, is closing its St. Petersburg studios and moving operations to Pennsylvania. Home shopping on TV was born in Pinellas County (on the radio), then went nationwide and worldwide. We speak with the first salesman-host, Bob Circosta, about HSN and its legacy in the region.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News, going to tell
you a story here that is really something that has
a big impact on the legacy of the Tampa Bay Area. Here,
the parent company of HSN, as well as QVC, its
one time rival, is shutting down its office in Saint
Petersburg and moving all of its operations to Pennsylvania. HSN
(00:20):
started out as the Home Shopping Network, and the concept
of putting on a live show and selling merchandise was
literally born here in the Tampa Bay Area. To give
us some context about what this means and how important
that industry has been to the Tampa Bay Area over
the years, we have the original HSN host, Bob Circosta,
(00:43):
who was there right at the beginning of everything, to
talk about the history of HSN and its impact on
the Tampa Bay Area. Bob Circosta, welcome well.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Gordon, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well. Most people may not know, even people who've been
in the Tampa Bay Area a little while, don't know
that one of the most financially successful cable channels over
the years in history began not on TV, but at
first on radio. Now you've told this story one hundred times.
But let's give everybody the elevator pitch version of how
what became HSN got going.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well. I am so proud of that story, so I
don't mind sharing it once again. It happened way back
in nineteen seventy seven, and you're right. It was on radio.
It was a radio station called WWQT. It was fourteen
seventy on your AM dial, and it happened to be
a news talk format, which you're very familiar with. And
(01:41):
we would do talk shows and newscasts all the time
and everything. But we didn't have very many advertisers. And
so the owner of the station, Bud Packson, he would
go out and try to get local businesses to advertise,
and he got a few here and there, but not
too many. But one day, and this is true now,
one day he was able to work out an advertising
(02:05):
arrangement with an applying store in clear Water. And so
for thirteen weeks, I advertised the applying store on my
radio show. I did a radio show every day from
noon to three, and it was a talk show. I
had nothing to do with selling, but I talked about
this applian. So well, fast forward, Bud went in to
collect the payment on the advertising, and the gentleman who
(02:26):
owned the store said, you know what, now, one person's
come in here and even said that they've heard my commercial.
Nobody listens to your little radio station. And furthermore, I'm
not going to pay you. And as soon as Bud
heard that, of course, he said, wait a minute, that's
not how it works. So they went back and forth,
back and forth. Long story short, the guy who owned
(02:47):
the applying store said, I'll tell you what I'll do
instead of giving you cash. Look back by the door,
I had a shipment of merchandise come in. Take that
box of merchandise in lieu of being paid. And so
by this time, I think Bud was so frustrated. He said, okay,
got in his car, took the box, got in the car,
and had no idea what he was going to do
(03:08):
with it. He told me later, and he drove back
to the station. The station happened to be on Hercules
Avenue in Clearwater, right across from the little airport there.
And so I'm on the air and I'm doing my newscast,
and every hour we had like a local news break,
and I'd take a break, and they do the local
news and weather. And so I'm sitting in this little
booth all by myself, not bothering anybody, and having a
(03:30):
cup of coffee. And soon the door opened up and
then walked Bud. And Bud was about six foot seven,
so when he came into a room, you knew he
was in that room. And he's holding in his hands
in the electric can opener. Now remember this is nineteen
seventy seven, so this was this was an avocado green,
(03:51):
ugly electric can opener. And he said to me, he said, Bob,
when you come out of the news, I want you
to sell this can opener. And I looked at him
like he had three heads. I said, you want me
to do what? He said, I want you to sell this.
I said sell. I remember saying, wait a minute, I'm
a newsman. I have morals and ethics. I don't want
to sell something. And he said, I'll give you a
(04:14):
dollar a can opener. And so I came out of
the news and I said, you know, I started describing
the can opener, and I said, if you call right
now and reserve a can opener, come on down to
the studio and pay for it. It is yours. And
pretty soon the lines started to light up. In fact,
I didn't know what those lines were because nobody ever
called this before on the show. And that day, that
(04:37):
day was August twenty eighth, nineteen seventy seven. Gordon, Well,
we did. We sold one hundred and twelve electric can openers,
and Bud Packson, being a great visionary that he was,
saw a business he saw and so the industry Gordon
was born that day.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And from there it went to a local television cable
channel and then to a new television cable channel. And
in that era, in that pre internet era, HSN was
a huge business. In fact, it was one of the
largest businesses in the Tampa Bay area, which is why
they had such a huge campus in Saint Petersburg. Tell
(05:16):
us about what it was like in those days. The
kind of impact that you had and that you felt.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
It was great, there's no question. And we stayed on
radio for like five years until nineteen eighty two, and
then they had a Then we went to local cable.
It was a vision cable. Maybe some of your listeners
will remember Vision Cable, but we leased the channel and
it was called the Home Shopping Channel. Now before that,
by the way, Gordon on radio the actual name when
(05:43):
it began, Are you ready, You're ready, I'm ready, It
was called the it was called the International Sun Coast
Bargaineers Club. That was the original name, and then it
changed a home shopping channel, and then we went nationwide
and nine well we were local eighty two to eighty five,
(06:04):
and we went nationwide in nineteen eighty five. And at
one time there were twenty eight other companies trying to
do the same thing, but they didn't have the distribution
that we had, so they had a difficult time. But
in those early days, it was just it was so
much it was so much fun, it was exciting, it
was you know, it was a new you know, nowadays
(06:27):
everybody talks about, hey, the new thing is social selling,
which a lot of people are doing that, there's no
doubt about it. And they talk about engagement with the viewer. Well,
we were doing that way back in the early eighties.
We were engaging the viewer. We were interactive and so
I'm just so proud to have been a part of
(06:48):
that and created and developed so many friendships that last
to this day.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And you were literally influencing at that time. You were
looking through the camera at the customer talking to them
about the product. Sometimes you'd take phone calls and people
would and you'd talk with the callers about the product,
and and and yes, it very much was that long
before we had social media influencers. And certainly I've known
(07:15):
a lot of people who have who have been on
the air with the HSN over the years. People don't
realize how many people worked on and off the air
at HSN, the people who took the orders and ran
the business that that shipped those orders out. That was huge,
and it was I have to think of in a
lot of ways, not just UH on on the air,
(07:36):
but also logistically. You helped pave the way for a
lot of the UH a lot of the online retailing
that goes on today.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
No question. I mean, the similarities are incredible, and we
were doing it way back when, and and the callers
provided such an interaction and such an entertainment value that
came from By the way, locally, if somebody ordered it's
something for me and they happen to live on my
way home, I would deliver the product. At the beginning.
(08:06):
I would take the product to their house and I
would give it to them. I would deliver it so
you know, to see it go from that too, and
then you talk about the growth of it over the years,
becoming one of the largest, if not the largest employers
in Penelas County. I mean, I think at one time
we employed locally sick over six thousand people. I don't
(08:30):
know what it is now, but over six thousand people
at that time. So it's definitely had an impact not
just on the area, but it's had an impact on
the world because Gordon, you go to any country of
the world now and they have a home shopping service.
So it's a phenomenal industry.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
All something that started here and it literally changed your life.
I mean, this had to be something you couldn't possibly
have expected in your previous life as a talk radio host.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
If you would have told me what I would end
up doing, I would say, you are crazy, that that
is just not going to happen. But I fell in
love with doing it. I fell in love with sharing
products and sharing with people how could make their their
lives better, how it could improve their lives, and the
interaction with the audience. I just love that part of
(09:25):
it and still do. I mean I still go on
HSN with a number of products as a guest, and
I'm still involved, and it's say it's really something.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
It's really something, and that's going to continue to go on.
It'll go on in other places. Tell me how you
evaluate the lasting impact on this area of having had
HSN here's for so long and for home shopping being
born here. Certainly fortunes were made here, people's lives were
changed here. What's its legacy for us as a region.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Well, I think we're all proud to have been a
part of it, whether it be from behind the camera
on camera or from the home and watching it and help,
because it would not have grown without all the great
people in this area, it would not have grown whatsoever.
So everybody really can enjoy having been part of this industry.
(10:26):
And yeah, I just want to make it very clear.
HSN is not closing down. Okay, the the HSN channel
that you get at home and everything you'll still be
able to see and and that's not going to change.
It's just they're changing the uh uh, you know, the
operations of it, which I'm sure was a tough and
difficult decision for them to make, but hey, you know
(10:50):
that that's the way things go. I learned a long
time ago. You know, my parents used to always tell me,
it's not what happens to you in life, it's how
you react to it. And so my words of advice
to everybody who is affected by this in what they
think is a negative way right now, it's how you react.
It's how you react to it. But Home Shopping nothing
(11:12):
quite like it, nothing quite like it, and the legacy
of it. Once again, I think everybody should be proud
to have been a part of the growth and the
development here in this area. We'll never see anything like
that again, I don't think indeed.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And our best wishes to those who are affected by that,
and our best wishes to you and continued success and
onward and upward. Bob Sarcosta, one of the founding figures
of HSN and home Shopping that all started right here
in the Tampa Bay area. Thank you very much for
joining us on beyond the News
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News, going to tell
you a story here that is really something that has
a big impact on the legacy of the Tampa Bay Area. Here,
the parent company of HSN, as well as QVC, its
one time rival, is shutting down its office in Saint
Petersburg and moving all of its operations to Pennsylvania. HSN
(00:20):
started out as the Home Shopping Network, and the concept
of putting on a live show and selling merchandise was
literally born here in the Tampa Bay Area. To give
us some context about what this means and how important
that industry has been to the Tampa Bay Area over
the years, we have the original HSN host, Bob Circosta,
(00:43):
who was there right at the beginning of everything, to
talk about the history of HSN and its impact on
the Tampa Bay Area. Bob Circosta, welcome well.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Gordon, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well. Most people may not know, even people who've been
in the Tampa Bay Area a little while, don't know
that one of the most financially successful cable channels over
the years in history began not on TV, but at
first on radio. Now you've told this story one hundred times.
But let's give everybody the elevator pitch version of how
what became HSN got going.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well. I am so proud of that story, so I
don't mind sharing it once again. It happened way back
in nineteen seventy seven, and you're right. It was on radio.
It was a radio station called WWQT. It was fourteen
seventy on your AM dial, and it happened to be
a news talk format, which you're very familiar with. And
(01:41):
we would do talk shows and newscasts all the time
and everything. But we didn't have very many advertisers. And
so the owner of the station, Bud Packson, he would
go out and try to get local businesses to advertise,
and he got a few here and there, but not
too many. But one day, and this is true now,
one day he was able to work out an advertising
(02:05):
arrangement with an applying store in clear Water. And so
for thirteen weeks, I advertised the applying store on my
radio show. I did a radio show every day from
noon to three, and it was a talk show. I
had nothing to do with selling, but I talked about
this applian. So well, fast forward, Bud went in to
collect the payment on the advertising, and the gentleman who
(02:26):
owned the store said, you know what, now, one person's
come in here and even said that they've heard my commercial.
Nobody listens to your little radio station. And furthermore, I'm
not going to pay you. And as soon as Bud
heard that, of course, he said, wait a minute, that's
not how it works. So they went back and forth,
back and forth. Long story short, the guy who owned
(02:47):
the applying store said, I'll tell you what I'll do
instead of giving you cash. Look back by the door,
I had a shipment of merchandise come in. Take that
box of merchandise in lieu of being paid. And so
by this time, I think Bud was so frustrated. He said, okay,
got in his car, took the box, got in the car,
and had no idea what he was going to do
(03:08):
with it. He told me later, and he drove back
to the station. The station happened to be on Hercules
Avenue in Clearwater, right across from the little airport there.
And so I'm on the air and I'm doing my newscast,
and every hour we had like a local news break,
and I'd take a break, and they do the local
news and weather. And so I'm sitting in this little
booth all by myself, not bothering anybody, and having a
(03:30):
cup of coffee. And soon the door opened up and
then walked Bud. And Bud was about six foot seven,
so when he came into a room, you knew he
was in that room. And he's holding in his hands
in the electric can opener. Now remember this is nineteen
seventy seven, so this was this was an avocado green,
(03:51):
ugly electric can opener. And he said to me, he said, Bob,
when you come out of the news, I want you
to sell this can opener. And I looked at him
like he had three heads. I said, you want me
to do what? He said, I want you to sell this.
I said sell. I remember saying, wait a minute, I'm
a newsman. I have morals and ethics. I don't want
to sell something. And he said, I'll give you a
(04:14):
dollar a can opener. And so I came out of
the news and I said, you know, I started describing
the can opener, and I said, if you call right
now and reserve a can opener, come on down to
the studio and pay for it. It is yours. And
pretty soon the lines started to light up. In fact,
I didn't know what those lines were because nobody ever
called this before on the show. And that day, that
(04:37):
day was August twenty eighth, nineteen seventy seven. Gordon, Well,
we did. We sold one hundred and twelve electric can openers,
and Bud Packson, being a great visionary that he was,
saw a business he saw and so the industry Gordon
was born that day.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And from there it went to a local television cable
channel and then to a new television cable channel. And
in that era, in that pre internet era, HSN was
a huge business. In fact, it was one of the
largest businesses in the Tampa Bay area, which is why
they had such a huge campus in Saint Petersburg. Tell
(05:16):
us about what it was like in those days. The
kind of impact that you had and that you felt.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
It was great, there's no question. And we stayed on
radio for like five years until nineteen eighty two, and
then they had a Then we went to local cable.
It was a vision cable. Maybe some of your listeners
will remember Vision Cable, but we leased the channel and
it was called the Home Shopping Channel. Now before that,
by the way, Gordon on radio the actual name when
(05:43):
it began, Are you ready, You're ready, I'm ready, It
was called the it was called the International Sun Coast
Bargaineers Club. That was the original name, and then it
changed a home shopping channel, and then we went nationwide
and nine well we were local eighty two to eighty five,
(06:04):
and we went nationwide in nineteen eighty five. And at
one time there were twenty eight other companies trying to
do the same thing, but they didn't have the distribution
that we had, so they had a difficult time. But
in those early days, it was just it was so
much it was so much fun, it was exciting, it
was you know, it was a new you know, nowadays
(06:27):
everybody talks about, hey, the new thing is social selling,
which a lot of people are doing that, there's no
doubt about it. And they talk about engagement with the viewer. Well,
we were doing that way back in the early eighties.
We were engaging the viewer. We were interactive and so
I'm just so proud to have been a part of
(06:48):
that and created and developed so many friendships that last
to this day.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And you were literally influencing at that time. You were
looking through the camera at the customer talking to them
about the product. Sometimes you'd take phone calls and people
would and you'd talk with the callers about the product,
and and and yes, it very much was that long
before we had social media influencers. And certainly I've known
(07:15):
a lot of people who have who have been on
the air with the HSN over the years. People don't
realize how many people worked on and off the air
at HSN, the people who took the orders and ran
the business that that shipped those orders out. That was huge,
and it was I have to think of in a
lot of ways, not just UH on on the air,
(07:36):
but also logistically. You helped pave the way for a
lot of the UH a lot of the online retailing
that goes on today.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
No question. I mean, the similarities are incredible, and we
were doing it way back when, and and the callers
provided such an interaction and such an entertainment value that
came from By the way, locally, if somebody ordered it's
something for me and they happen to live on my
way home, I would deliver the product. At the beginning.
(08:06):
I would take the product to their house and I
would give it to them. I would deliver it so
you know, to see it go from that too, and
then you talk about the growth of it over the years,
becoming one of the largest, if not the largest employers
in Penelas County. I mean, I think at one time
we employed locally sick over six thousand people. I don't
(08:30):
know what it is now, but over six thousand people
at that time. So it's definitely had an impact not
just on the area, but it's had an impact on
the world because Gordon, you go to any country of
the world now and they have a home shopping service.
So it's a phenomenal industry.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
All something that started here and it literally changed your life.
I mean, this had to be something you couldn't possibly
have expected in your previous life as a talk radio host.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
If you would have told me what I would end
up doing, I would say, you are crazy, that that
is just not going to happen. But I fell in
love with doing it. I fell in love with sharing
products and sharing with people how could make their their
lives better, how it could improve their lives, and the
interaction with the audience. I just love that part of
(09:25):
it and still do. I mean I still go on
HSN with a number of products as a guest, and
I'm still involved, and it's say it's really something.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
It's really something, and that's going to continue to go on.
It'll go on in other places. Tell me how you
evaluate the lasting impact on this area of having had
HSN here's for so long and for home shopping being
born here. Certainly fortunes were made here, people's lives were
changed here. What's its legacy for us as a region.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Well, I think we're all proud to have been a
part of it, whether it be from behind the camera
on camera or from the home and watching it and help,
because it would not have grown without all the great
people in this area, it would not have grown whatsoever.
So everybody really can enjoy having been part of this industry.
(10:26):
And yeah, I just want to make it very clear.
HSN is not closing down. Okay, the the HSN channel
that you get at home and everything you'll still be
able to see and and that's not going to change.
It's just they're changing the uh uh, you know, the
operations of it, which I'm sure was a tough and
difficult decision for them to make, but hey, you know
(10:50):
that that's the way things go. I learned a long
time ago. You know, my parents used to always tell me,
it's not what happens to you in life, it's how
you react to it. And so my words of advice
to everybody who is affected by this in what they
think is a negative way right now, it's how you react.
It's how you react to it. But Home Shopping nothing
(11:12):
quite like it, nothing quite like it, and the legacy
of it. Once again, I think everybody should be proud
to have been a part of the growth and the
development here in this area. We'll never see anything like
that again, I don't think indeed.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And our best wishes to those who are affected by that,
and our best wishes to you and continued success and
onward and upward. Bob Sarcosta, one of the founding figures
of HSN and home Shopping that all started right here
in the Tampa Bay area. Thank you very much for
joining us on beyond the News
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